NHPCO Responds to New OIG Reports

On July 9, 2019, the Office of the Inspector General released two new reports following its investigation into hospice care in the U.S.  To briefly summarize, the OIG found that 20 percent of hospices have deficiencies that put patients at risk and the OIG is suggesting that among its recommendations that deficiency data be shared more broadly to help improve quality of care. 

News stories prompted by the OIG reports have been carried by The Washington Post, NBC News, and NPR. The journalists writing some of these news stories have shared selected patient stories based on their own investigation. These patient stories are difficult to read and reflect badly on hospice.  It is likely that other media outlets will carry these articles or generate additional news coverage on this topic.

Many of the issues brought up in the new reports have been discussed in previous OIG documents going back to 2005. 

NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach released some key messages, most notably:

NHPCO welcomes the opportunity to shed a light on high quality providers as well as those that fall short in providing appropriate care. NHPCO will continue to partner with government agencies to strengthen and make more transparent the tools and data needed to empower consumers when they are choosing a quality hospice program. NHPCO will also continue to provide tools and resources to help our members to meet and exceed quality benchmarks.

Read the complete NHPCO response online.

Free APM Webinar offered by National Coalition

The National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care will be presenting a free webinar, New Medicare Alternative Payment Models: Options and Opportunities for Hospices and Palliative Care Programs. There are limited spaces available for the webinar offered on Thursday, July 25, 2019 from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. ET, so those interested should register as soon as possible. (Please note, this is a new date for this program.)

The program is designed to help prepare the U.S. hospice provider community for the new payment models that were announced in April and are coming. This webinar will be helpful to hospice and palliative program managers and leaders in all disciplines and others interested in the new Medicare payment options.

This webinar will help you:

• Describe how participation and payment would work in these voluntary models, available in 26 geographic regions across the country;
• Consider the pros and cons of these new payment models; and,
• Determine whether to apply to participate on your own and/or whether to work with potential collaborators in your local area, by evaluating the program requirements.

Register while space is available for New Medicare Alternative Payment Models: Options and Opportunities for Hospices and Palliative Care Programs.

NDS – Send us Your Data!

Now through July 26, you have the opportunity to participate in the NHPCO’s National Data Set.

You may ask---what’s that?  Well, with all the data collected by CMS and other industry sources, there is still a gap in information that is useful for benchmarking your staffing, budgets, and supporting your strategic goals.  The NDS serves as a central collection point for some of this key data and brings together provider experience from across the industry.
 
By participating, you have access to this industry wide data so that you can benchmark yourself against other providers of similar sizes and geography.  This can be a gold-mine to many providers to help set and confirm staffing levels, budgets, influence delivery of care changes, and shape the goals of your Hospice and its services.  For NHPCO, we use this information to help us derive insights coupled with other data to influence lawmakers and policy that positively impacts our industry so it’s a win: win scenario.

Don’t just take our word for it:

Leanne Burrack, vice president from UnityPoint Hospice, says that her organization often depends on the NDS to benchmark operations.  They have used NDS related data and insights to help create staffing guidelines, inform budget projections, and influence on-going hiring and growth expectations across all disciplines.

Jennifer Kennedy, NHPCO’s senior director, regulatory and quality, uses the NDS results coupled with other data sources and her vast experience to create tools for providers such as NHPCO’s Staffing Guidelines which is designed to help providers develop staffing levels for quality patient/family care delivery.

Examples like these highlights how useful it is to have industry data to help us all work smarter, not just harder.  We need your help, please visit our NDS website to learn more about the specific questions, raffled prizes for participation, and/or to access the survey’s link.

By Don Sievert
NHPCO Senior Director, Decision Support

Contribute to The Hospice Music Project

Joy in a Teardrop: The Hospice Music Project was initiated with the creation of a song, Joy in a Teardrop, which was written as part of a songwriting workshop at NHPCO’s Interdisciplinary Conference in November 2018 in New Orleans. Led by GRAMMY award winning songwriter Tricia Walker and John Mulder, hospice professionals shared reflections of their work and put words to the many emotions experienced in caring for those at life’s end. Walker and Mulder shaped those words and added music to bring Joy in a Teardrop to life.

Spurred on by the hospice community’s positive response to Joy in a Teardrop, NHPCO is launching a  new program, Joy in a Teardrop: The Hospice Music Project, which will result in a full album of songs that reflect the experience of hospice professionals in the work that they do – the joys, sorrows, difficult and challenging times, and even the lighthearted and humorous moments that are a part of everyday end-of-life experiences.

Joy in a Teardrop: The Hospice Music Project, will be led by Tricia Walker and John Mulder, they will be assisted by other highly decorated songwriters, including Beth Nielsen Chapman and Marcus Hummon. These writers will take the thoughts and ideas provided by hospice and palliative care professionals and craft original songs, just as Walker and Mulder did with the original song.

NHPCO invites you to share your ideas with us – perhaps just a word or phrase, maybe a concept or thought, or even a meaningful story or vignette. It may be your experience, the experience of a patient or family, or something that was shared by a coworker.  They can be incomplete and scattered thoughts – we’d just like your reflections on this work that we all cherish.

You can submit your ideas at music@nhpco.org.  If you have any questions about the project, you can also submit those to the same address, and we’ll respond to you.

Free Webinar: New Palliative Care Measures Project

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, in collaboration with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care (which includes NHPCO) and RAND Health are pleased to officially announce a free public webinar to educate health care providers and the public about a Palliative Care Quality Measures Project that is currently underway through a cooperative agreement with CMS.

Attend a free webinar, Measuring Up: New Palliative Care Measures Project, June 26, 2019, 11-12:30 pm ET.

Don't miss the opportunity to participate in a complimentary webinar to learn about and discuss an innovative palliative care quality measures project that is engaging patients and caregivers throughout the measure development cycle.

Learn more and register online.

If you have any questions or need more information, please contact macra@nationalcoalitionhpc.org.

Rural Access to Hospice Act Reintroduced in Congress

NHPCO and Hospice Action Network are happy to announce that the Rural Access to Hospice Act was reintroduced in the US House of Representatives yesterday by Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) and Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN). It had been reintroduced in the Senate last month by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). Now that it is fully reintroduced in both chambers, it is imperative that Members of Congress hear from you!

We have reason to believe that a rural health package is being discussed in Congress, and we need to show that the Rural Access to Hospice Act has wide bipartisan grassroots support to bolster our argument to include this bill in the package. Can you please complete our Action Alert, and then share it with your staff and network?

Once you have completed the Action Alert, please consider completing a Letter to the Editor as well. Members of Congress read their local papers daily, and it influences their decision making if they see specific pieces of legislation mentioned in their local papers. Complete this pre-written Letter to the Editor to help spread the word!

Thank you for making time to be an advocate today!
 

Visit the HAN website to contact Congress today!

Palliative Care Playbook for Hospices

NHPCO proudly announces the release of its newest resource for members, the Palliative Care Playbook for Hospices. The Playbook has been created to help hospices who are offering or working to create community-based palliative care programs.

The Palliative Care Playbook for Hospices provides step-by-step instructions developed by hospice experts, to guide hospices in the development, implementation, and sustainability of a community-based palliative care program.

“The ability to provide care to more people, earlier, is becoming more important, and NHPCO is working to help our members prepare and succeed in this new healthcare landscape. The new Palliative Care Playbook for Hospices is an example of one such resource,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach.

The Palliative Care Playbook for Hospices content includes:

• Needs assessment process
• Business case development
• Legal and regulatory considerations
• Quality and data
• Staffing
• Budgets
• Documentation
• Reimbursement

“Our patients and families need hospices to think outside of the box. We're seeing expanding demos and models coming out of the CMS Innovation Center with the goal of transforming person-centered care delivery in the U.S.” said Edo Banach, NHPCO President & CEO. “Only a week ago, CMS announced the Primary Care First and Direct Contracting Models, which includes an advance care model for the seriously ill population.”

Additional attention has focused on the forthcoming Value Based Insurance Design (VIBD) demonstration and discussions of hospice and Medicare Advantage. The Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM) is well underway and many providers are already contracting with ACOs and other providers in their communities.

“We are fortunate to have established programs in the field share some of their practical tools and resources for the Playbook,” said NHPCO Vice President of Palliative and Advanced Care, Lori Bishop, MHA, BSN, RN. “In addition, members of our Palliative Care Council provide insight and generously gave of their expertise in the creation of the first several chapters of the Playbook.”